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# This may be useful to someone else

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier    "Generic Keyboard"
    Driver        "kbd"
    Option        "XkbRules"    "xorg"
    Option        "XkbModel"    "pc105"
    Option        "XkbLayout"    "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier    "Configured Mouse"
    Driver        "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier    "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier    "Default Screen"
    Monitor        "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "pad"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "pad"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Default Layout"
        Screen 0 "Default Screen"   0 0
        InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"    "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard" "CoreKeyboard"
        InputDevice    "stylus"    "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice    "eraser"    "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice    "cursor"    "SendCoreEvents"    # For non-LCD tablets only
#    InputDevice    "touch"     "SendCoreEvents"    # Only a few TabletPCs support this type
        InputDevice    "pad"   # For Intuos3/CintiqV5/Graphire4/Bamboo tablets
EndSection

"Getting Real" is 37 Signals' book of advice for developing internet software more quickly, more easily, and more successfully. As with "Getting Things Done", this may not at first sound particularly relevant for making art. But Getting Real's approach to projects is a very dynamic and creative one, and even if not all of its details are appropriate for art making (or for every artist), there's lots of good ideas if you take the time to map them onto art practice.

To pick a few section headings...

I always try to solve my own problems in art, I can never get enthusiastic about art for an external agenda. I usually pick a fight when making art, many of my series of works are ironizations of worldviews I disagree with or of artists whose work I dislike. I try to get at least one piece in a series finished as soon as possible to keep up my morale. I give samples away for free with images of work available on the website and as postcards and other physical items available from me in person. And I always try to give series of works memorable names.

Just read "art" for "software" and "studio" for "organization" and much of it makes sense, or is at least thought provoking. The chapters on "Staffing", "Code", "Interface Design" and "Words" won't be relevant. Do surprise me in the comments, though... ;-) .

If you have directories containing SVG files that you wish to add to a Subversion repository and you wish them to display as images rather than XML when someone broswes the repository in a web broswer, run the following in the local parent directory then commit it:

svn propset svn:mime-type image/svg+xml */*.svg

There are many Web 2,0 sites that allow you to organize projects using Wikis, checklists of to-do items, calendars and other systems. These can be of use to artists.

37 Signals are the leaders in this area but their work is not Free Software so I recommend Joyent's Connector and Wikidot instead, or even better software installed on your own server.

Two posts from 37 Signals's blog illusttrate how to use Web 2.0 productivity services to help organize art practice.

http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1226-how-to-manage-long-breaks-in-your-software-side-projects

Use a todo/checklist service to remind you of ideas you have yet to try or tasks that you need to complete for a project. Then when you return to the project after an interruption you can quickly remind yourself of what needs doing.

http://37signals.blogs.com/products/2008/08/backpack-helps.html

Use a wiki-style service to gather research materials such as images, references and notes for a project.

Although these examples are for software develoment and an academic research respectively it is easy to see how their lessons can be used to help organize art porjects.

The book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen describes an over-arching system for organizing work and life. It has two ideas that I think artists can use without adopting the system wholesale.

The first is to organize the working materials for projects into their own, physical, folders. Then when you need to return to the project you just get the folder and you immediately have all the materials you need to hand. Substitute "area of the studio", "rack", "drawer" or "portfolio" to taste. You don't need separate sketchbooks, and the system allows for an unsorted folder and other ways for ideas to mix and percolate.

The second is to break tasks down into quickly achievable "next actions", ideally achievable in 20 minutes or less each. So rather than "make 20 paintings for the show", "mark up the next canvas" or "sketch the cat". Yes, much of the value of art is long periods of visual contemplation or creative "flow". But you need to get there, and worrying about the big picture is less constructive than building up to that state slowly but surely.

There may be more in Getting Things Done of interest to individual artists, and its system is applicable to admin and other non-art work as well. It's well worth a read.

I've found it surprisingly easy to get started running OpenSim. Here are some good guides to going beyond just starting a sim.

http://gwala.net/blog/2008/08/resources-for-running-your-own-opensim/

A good collection of resources.

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/other-grids-virtual-worlds/13507-howto-get-opensim-running-osgrid.html

How to get your own OpenSim hosting for 15USD a month.

http://opensimuser.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/opensim-mysql-install-guide/

How to use OpenSim with MySQL.

Longlines - GNU Emacs Manual

To enable Long Lines mode, type M-x longlines-mode.

Soft line wrapping for Emacs.

Thanks to Matt Lee for telling me about this. :-)

You've got you MacBook Pro and you've taken a break from the conference to have a tall skinny decaf latte and listen to some music while you update your blog on the free wifi. You hipster, you. Could you be any cooler? Well, yes.

Your iPod and your iTunes library are proprietary software and closed formats. They are limiting your freedom. But there's a Free alternative.

Ogg Vorbis is an MP3/MP4 replacement. You can use it in iTunes and on music players, so it isn't inconvenient, and unlike MP3/MP4 it is Free and doesn't limit your freedom. It sounds good too.

To rip CDs to OGG see here: http://www.vorbis.com/software/

To listen to OGG in iTunes see here: http://xiph.org/quicktime/

To get an OGG player see here: http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/PortablePlayers

Or to use OGG on your existing player try here: http://www.rockbox.org/

Logical if (→) and iff (↔) are doing my head in.

→ is if, the "conditional connective". A → B means that A can be true only if B is true.

So → is false when A is true despite B being false. But otherwise it's true. Because we don't care about those scenarios. I don't know why. I suppose otherwise it would just be ∧ . I'm going to have to just accept this like the dot product, which also doesn't fit into my mathematical worldview, which is based on cakes.

↔ is iff, the "biconditional connective". A ↔ B is equivalent to [(A → B) ∧ (B → A)].

See? It's bi-conditional. So ↔ is false when A → B ∧ (B → A), or B → A ∧ (A → B) . Possibly I can come to terms with → as half of ↔ .

Next: the Axiom Schema Of Separation and how you can't model that using cakes either.

Technorati Tags: logic

Fallon Planning Blog: Culture: Experimental Research Methodologies
I have been collecting interesting approaches that Planners may consider with regard to documenting (and imaging) the pulse of the people, beyond our customary street poll, focus group and omnibus surveys. Here are some great, natural and organic methods to explore what's going on in people's lives (see the PUBLIC SPEAKS links on the sidelines to the right, too, for ongoing sites, and suggest more if you know any).